GO:

• New district policy to protect the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming students

• Mental-health support for Asian-American students and families through partnership with nonprofit Asian Americans for Community Involvement

• Groundbreaking for Palo Alto High School athletic center

• Centers for Disease Control to study local suicide cluster

• External review of the district’s special-education department and services

• Elementary mathematics curriculum pilot program

• Mandarin immersion expansion to middle school

• New communications, equity coordinators hired

• Required use of Schoology by all teachers

• Teachers’ required adherence to homework policy

• Implementation of Minority Achievement and Talent Development committee recommendations

• Pending recommendations for new school by Enrollment Management Advisory Committee

NO GO:

• Academic classes during zero period

• Continued employment of Paly English teacher Kevin Sharp

• Continued employment of former Paly Principal Phil Winston

LIMBO:

• Hiring of district general counsel

• K-12 world language discussion/action

• District involvement in grassroots Save the 2,008 campaign

• Hiring of new Project Safety Net executive director

• Office for Civil Rights sexual-harassment investigations at Paly, Gunn

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5 Comments

  1. Dear Fellow Onliners,

    Though I’ve always loved the sport of limbo, and my chiropractor loves the outcome, and though it’s nice to have a place in a realm that’s only a baptism away from Heaven, I think that for the Palo Alto record I ought to note that, although Save the 2,008 has amassed 424 signed supporters–including parents, students, teachers, alums, LMFTs, professors of education at Stanford, PAMF physicians, noted authors Vicki Abeles and Alfie Kohn, five rabbis and several ministers, psychiatrists, martial-arts and yoga instructors, a chief health strategist from Google, venture capitalists, Academy Award winning filmmaker Jessica Yu (Gunn,’84), national youth-suicide-prevention activists, etc.–its six proposals have been completely turned away by the P.A.U.S.D. superintendent and school board, with the exception of Ken Dauber, who publicly called Save the 2,008 “a gift to the community.”

    Warm holiday-time wishes to all,

    Marc Vincenti
    Campaign Coordinator
    Save the 2,008

    P.S. We’re at: savethe2008.com. Come join us, won’t you?

  2. This is fantastic news! I hope it’s enforced. Immediate activation?

    If they are forced to adhere to the homework policy, this means 10 minutes per grade level, not including APs/honors, unfortunately, but at least the regular lanes will now be consistent.

    “Required use of Schoology by all teachers”

    “Teachers’ required adherence to homework policy”

  3. Well, most of this doesn’t sound new, but basically okay.

    Wonder if there could be a bit less testing to make up for the possible loss of homework time. That strikes me as a sort of a win/win. This constant teaching to the test strikes me as pretty pointless long-term. Even halving the number of tests in most classes would be an improvement. Seriously, I’d rather see a history essay instead of yet-another-multiple-choice exam–and do the essay in class.

    As expected, MI gets a slot while the world-language needs of most of the kids gets sidelined yet again. Seriously, I was reading the complaints about Spanish in the middle schools and the high schools–kids would have a much easier time of it if they were exposed to Spanish or French or whatever a couple of times a week in school or after school during the elementary school years. Just don’t know why it’s not more widely available and why it’s so impossible to implement a simple program. Ohlone afterschool language program doesn’t make kids fluent, but it does give them a start–at least they know what a foreign language is.

    Approve of all the no-gos–can’t believe people are still fussing about losing academic zero period given what’s happened here.

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